The face on Mars is nothing but a Martian equivalent of a butte or a mesa. Martian mesas are common enough around Cydonia. So it wouldnt have been surprising if it was just an ordinary mesa. In1976, Viking 1 saw the mesa and thought it looked like a face. But scientists found out that it was just a martian mesa.

On April 5, 1998 a Mars Global Surveyor flew over Cydonia for the first time. Michael Malin and his Orbiter Camera took a picture of the Mesa that looked like face. The picture was ten times better than the picture that the Viking 1 took. They found out that it was just a natural landform and that it wasnt an alien monument at all. Yet with all the proof some people did not believe that it wasnt just a regular Mars mesa due to that it was a cloudy year on Mars. So on April 8, 2001 it was a cloudless summer day in Cydonia and the Global Mars Surveyor got a second chance to look at the butte. The surveyor took a photo using its cameras absolute maximum resolution. The picture showed that it was just a Martian equivalent of a butte or a messa.

Nevertheless we found out that it was an ordinary martian mesa that looked like a face due to shadows. It was never an alien monument but was an ordinary mesa. So the the face on mars was never an alien monument but a nutural landform.